The carer careers of son and daughter primary carers of their very old parents in Norway

2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOR INGE ROMOREN
Keyword(s):  
Informal Care ◽  
Service Utilisation ◽  
Next Of Kin ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Formal Service ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Care Recipients ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Primary Care Giver

The purpose of this article is to analyse with longitudinal data from Norway the caring activities of sons and daughters who were the primary care-giver to a parent aged 80 or more years. The study sample consists of the 227 offspring care-givers in the Larvik study, which examined the illnesses and disabilities and the informal and formal care received until their deaths of all those aged 80 or more years in the town's population in 1981. Prospective and retrospective data were collected from that year about the health, functional losses and formal service utilisation of the older people. After the death of an older person in the study, the next-of-kin was interviewed about the informal care provided by relatives and friends during the same time span. The sequences and content of the care-giving activities differed little for son or daughter care-givers, except during a short escalation phase. The average duration of informal home care was shorter for sons than for daughters, primarily because a minority of the daughters had very long care-giving careers. The duration of the care recipients' stays in acute or long-term care institutions before death did not differ by the gender of the carer. Compared with many earlier studies, few gender differences in offspring care-giving activities were found. The findings suggest that the potential of sons to provide informal care to frail older parents is underestimated in modern societies.

scholarly journals The impact of informal care-giving networks on adult children's care-giver burden

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
NATALIA TOLKACHEVA ◽  
MARJOLEIN BROESE VAN GROENOU ◽  
ALICE DE BOER ◽  
THEO VAN TILBURG
Keyword(s):  
Informal Care ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Care Giver ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTPrevious research on the care-giver burden experienced by adult children has typically focused on the adult child and parent dyad. This study uses information on multiple informal care-givers and examines how characteristics of the informal care-giving network affect the adult child's care-giver burden. In 2007, 602 Dutch care-givers who were assisting their older parents reported on parental and personal characteristics, care activities, experienced burden and characteristics of other informal care-givers. A path model was applied to assess the relative impact of the informal care-giving network characteristics on the care-giver burden. An adult child experienced lower care-giver burden when the informal care-giving network size was larger, when more types of tasks were shared across the network, when care was shared for a longer period, and when the adult child had no disagreements with the other members of the network. Considering that the need for care of older parents is growing, being in an informal care-giving network will be of increasing benefit for adult children involved in long-term care. More care-givers will turn into managers of care, as they increasingly have to organise the sharing of care among informal helpers and cope with disagreements among the members of the network.

scholarly journals Qualitative exploration of the experiences of informal care-givers for dependent older adults in Mexico City

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (11) ◽  
pp. 2377-2396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Giraldo-Rodríguez ◽  
Nathalia Guevara-Jaramillo ◽  
Marcela Agudelo-Botero ◽  
Dolores Mino-León ◽  
Mariana López-Ortega
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
Family Care ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Care Giving

AbstractPopulation ageing and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and their consequences, changes in family structure and a decrease in the potential pool of family care, increase the need for formal long-term care for older adults in Mexico, and the need to understand the experiences of informal care-givers and how this impacts their social, family and personal conditions. This study investigates the experience of informal care-givers of dependent older adults using a cross-sectional qualitative study with an ethnographic focus. Thematic analysis was performed. The study comprised 48 semi-structured interviews with care-givers of dependent older adults who are beneficiaries of an in-home medical programme in Mexico City. The average age of care-givers was 54.7 years (standard deviation = 13.1, range = 24–86) and 75 per cent (36) were women. Results show care-giving experiences are diverse and complex, and profoundly affect the care-giver's life in terms of emotional burden, health deterioration and adverse life conditions due to economic deprivation. They also revealed key aspects such as the need to improve communication between care-givers and health-care personnel, the need for training about specific care needs and opportunity costs incurred. This information can serve as a basis for generating support strategies that may be integrated into the in-home programme. It is essential to promote actions that consider the ‘dependent older adult–informal care-giver’ dyad, and that aim to reduce the care-giving burden.

Care management and care provision for older relatives amongst employed informal care-givers

2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 755-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
CAROLYN J. ROSENTHAL ◽  
ANNE MARTIN-MATTHEWS ◽  
JANICE M. KEEFE
Keyword(s):  
Informal Care ◽  
Care Management ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Direct Care ◽  
Care Recipient ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Formal Services

ABSTRACTThis paper examines care management, or ‘managerial care’, a type of informal care for older adults that has been relatively neglected by researchers. While previous research has acknowledged that care-giving may involve tasks other than direct ‘hands-on’ care, the conceptualisation of managerial care has often been vague and inconsistent. This study is the first explicitly to investigate managerial care amongst a large sample of carers. In our conceptualisation, care management includes care-related discussions with other family members or the care recipient about the arrangements for formal services and financial matters, doing relevant paperwork, and seeking information. The study examines the prevalence of this type of care, the circumstances under which it occurs, its variations by care-giver characteristics, and its impact on the carers. We drew from the Canadian CARNET ‘Work and Family Survey’ a sub-sample of 1,847 full-time employed individuals who were assisting older relatives. The analysis shows that managerial care is common, distinct from other types of care, a meaningful construct, and that most care-givers provide both managerial and direct care. Care management includes both the orchestration of care and financial and bureaucratic management. Providing managerial care generates stress amongst women and interferes with work amongst men, and the aspect that generates the greatest personal and job costs amongst both men and women is the orchestration of care.

Minding the money: a growing responsibility for informal carers

2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHERYL TILSE ◽  
DEBORAH SETTERLUND ◽  
JILL WILSON ◽  
LINDA ROSENMAN
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Older People ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
Asset Management ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Informal Carers

Managing the assets of older people is a common and potentially complex task of informal care with legal, financial, cultural, political and family dimensions. Older people are increasingly recognised as having significant assets, but the family, the state, service providers and the market have competing interests in their use. Increased policy interest in self-provision and user-charges for services underline the importance of asset management in protecting the current and future health, care and accommodation choices of older people. Although ‘minding the money’ has generally been included as an informal care-giving task, there is limited recognition of either its growing importance and complexity or of care-givers' involvement. The focus of both policy and practice have been primarily on substitute decision-making and abuse. This paper reports an Australian national survey and semi-structured interviews that have explored the prevalence of non-professional involvement in asset management. The findings reveal the nature and extent of involvement, the tasks that informal carers take on, the management processes that they use, and that ‘minding the money’ is a common informal care task and mostly undertaken in the private sphere using some risky practices. Assisting informal care-givers with asset management and protecting older people from financial risks and abuse require various strategic policy and practice responses that extend beyond substitute decision-making legislation. Policies and programmes are required: to increase the awareness of the tasks, tensions and practices surrounding asset management; to improve the financial literacy of older people, their informal care-givers and service providers; to ensure access to information, advice and support services; and to develop better accountability practices.

scholarly journals Does long-term care coverage shape the impact of informal care-giving on quality of life? A difference-in-difference approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1291-1308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thijs van den Broek ◽  
Emily Grundy
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Difference In Difference ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe impact that providing care to ageing parents has on adult children's lives may depend on the long-term care (LTC) context. A common approach to test this is to compare whether the impact of care-giving varies between countries with different LTC coverage. However, this approach leaves considerable room for omitted variable bias. We use individual fixed-effects analyses to reduce bias in the estimates of the effects of informal care-giving on quality of life, and combine this with a difference-in-difference approach to reduce bias in the estimated moderating impact of LTC coverage on these effects. We draw on longitudinal data for Sweden and Denmark from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) collected between 2004 and 2015. Both countries traditionally had generous LTC coverage, but cutbacks were implemented at the end of the 20th century in Sweden and more recently in Denmark. We use this country difference in the timing of the cutbacks to shed light on effects of LTC coverage on the impact care-giving has on quality of life. Our analyses show that care-giving was more detrimental for quality of life in Sweden than in Denmark, and this difference weakened significantly when LTC coverage was reduced in Denmark, but not in Sweden. This suggests that LTC coverage shapes the impact of care-giving on quality of life.

scholarly journals Providing informal care next to paid work: explaining care-giving gratification, burden and stress among older workers

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Olga Grünwald ◽  
Marleen Damman ◽  
Kène Henkens
Keyword(s):  
Informal Care ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Work Situation ◽  
Explanatory Role ◽  
Levels Of Care ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Phased Retirement

Abstract With an increasing retirement age, more older adults are combining employment with informal care-giving responsibilities. However, little is known about how older workers experience care-giving activities next to their paid jobs. This study aims to fill this gap by examining how the work situation (i.e. working hours, occupational status and perceived access to human resources practices) is associated with feelings of gratification, burden and stress in care-giving. Using data from the NIDI Pension Panel Survey, we study care-giving experiences – in other words, the extent to which care-giving activities are gratifying, burdensome or stressful – of 1,651 Dutch older workers (age 60–65) who provide care at least once per week. Multivariate analyses reveal that the work situation plays an explanatory role next to socio-demographic factors and indicators of the care-giving situation. Working care-givers who feel they have access to phased retirement and organisational health support experience care-giving as relatively less burdensome and stressful. Moreover, those with access to phased retirement experience relatively higher levels of gratification in care-giving. Our findings suggest that the availability of organisational support relates to lower levels of care-giving burden and stress, and to some extent to higher levels of gratification. Organisations thus play an important role in facilitating the combination of work and care-giving obligations in a context of longer working lives.

Risk factors related to the admission of people with dementia into a long-term care institution in Spain: an explorative study

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-211
Author(s):  
ESTER RISCO ◽  
ESTHER CABRERA ◽  
M. CARME ALVIRA ◽  
MARTA FARRÉ ◽  
SUSANA MIGUEL ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Care Institution ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
Person With Dementia

ABSTRACTRisk factors associated with admission of people with dementia to long-term care institutions need to be identified to support health-care professionals in dementia care at home. An explorative study, combining quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, was performed in people with dementia in Spain. The sample, consisting of people with dementia receiving formal care from health-care professionals but at risk of institutionalisation, and their informal care-givers; and people with dementia recently admitted to a long-term care institution, and their informal care-givers, was interviewed between November 2010 and April 2012. Perceived reasons for admission were determined through an open-ended question put to both groups. Presumed risk factors were collected with validated questionnaires and analysed using bivariate analysis. A total of 287 people with dementia and informal care-givers were studied. Reasons given by the institutionalised group were mostly related to the level of dependency of the person with dementia. People recently admitted to a long-term care institution had more cognitive impairment, a greater degree of dependency and poorer quality of life than those still living at home. Home-care services in Spain need to develop or improve interventions based on the risk factors identified in this study: informal care-giver profile, high cognitive impairment, high level of dependency and the poor quality of life of the person with dementia.

scholarly journals The contributions of family care-givers at end of life: A national post-bereavement census survey of cancer carers’ hours of care and expenditures

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 346-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Rowland ◽  
Barbara Hanratty ◽  
Mark Pilling ◽  
Bernard van den Berg ◽  
Gunn Grande
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Family Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Care Giving

Background: Family members provide vital care at end of life, enabling patients to remain at home. Such informal care contributes significantly to the economy while supporting patients’ preferences and government policy. However, the value of care-givers’ contributions is often underestimated or overlooked in evaluations. Without information on the activities and expenditures involved in informal care-giving, it is impossible to provide an accurate assessment of carers’ contribution to end-of-life care. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the contributions and expenditure of informal, family care-giving in end-of-life cancer care. Design: A national census survey of English cancer carers was conducted. Survey packs were mailed to 5271 people who registered the death of a relative to cancer during 1–16 May 2015. Data were collected on decedents’ health and situation, care support given, financial expenditure resulting from care, carer well-being and general background information. Results: In all, 1504 completed surveys were returned (28.5%). Over 90% of respondents reported spending time on care-giving in the last 3 months of the decedent’s life, contributing a median 69 h 30 min of care-giving each week. Those who reported details of expenditure (72.5%) spent a median £370 in the last 3 months of the decedent’s life. Conclusion: Carers contribute a great deal of time and money for day-to-day support and care of patients. This study has yielded a unique, population-level data set of end-of-life care-giving and future analyses will provide estimates of the economic value of family care-givers’ contributions.

Elasticity of care networks and the gendered division of care

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-703 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILCO KRUIJSWIJK ◽  
BARBARA DA ROIT ◽  
MARCEL HOOGENBOOM
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Research Finding ◽  
Family Care ◽  
Care Giver ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
Primary Care Giver

ABSTRACTThe gender gap in family care-giving is an established research finding: men dedicate less time to care-giving and provide specific gendered types of help. This article argues that in order to grasp men's contribution to care arrangements one should recognise the multifaceted nature of care and examine care networks beyond the ‘care receiver–primary care-giver’ dyad with a dynamic perspective. A qualitative analysis of the care networks of three large Dutch families with an older parent in need of care confirms the greater involvement of women in care-giving and men's tendency to provide specific types of care. However, men also contribute to the elasticity and stability of the care arrangement by filling temporary gaps and supporting the female care-givers. This article puts forward the idea that men's contribution is in turn a factor in the perpetuation of the gendered structure of care-giving.

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